Implements to assist with walking are well known and often take the form of a cane with a handle at the top and skid-resistant cap at the bottom. Canes are useful to assist locomotion for those who, do to age or injury, for example, require or appreciate the stability that a cane provides for upright walking. As the baby boom generation ages, walking canes become increasingly important personal possessions.
In addition to mobility, the elderly may also appreciate help tools that help them pick and retrieve items. Walking canes that incorporate a gripper mechanism have been described previously, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 7,624,746, where a gripper mechanism for an adjustable length cane is operated by a cabling system house internally in the hollow cane.
Height-adjustable walking canes with a gripper mechanism and a light that can be switched on and off by the user have also been described, such as, for example, US Pat. Pub. No. US20110155195.
Despite the clever solutions provided in the above references, they have shortcomings. For example, a light at the base of the cane and an actuator mechanism near the handle is not provided for an adjustable-height cane, because they do not provide an adjustable length electrical conductor that maintains its tension when the length of the cane is changed.
Another shortcoming is the lack of selectively actuatable illumination sources that project light in more than one desired direction. For example, it would be useful to have a light that shines forward to illuminate the area into which a user is walking, as well as a light that shines downward or from the base of the cane, to illuminate the floor or under a table or chair so that a user can find something that may have fallen on the floor or under a table.
The present disclosure, accordingly, describes an adjustable-length walking cane with a gripper mechanism and more than one source of illumination.